Delta named world's most on-time mainline airline in 2018

Industry’s most comprehensive on-time analysis for 10th year running recognises Delta Air Lines as world’s most on-time mainline airline for second year running

Qatar Airways is named world’s best on-time airline network

For the first time, awards name Azul and Iberia Express as joint winners in Low-Cost Carrier category

FlightGlobal’s annual On-Time Performance Service (OPS) Awards rank airlines based on more than 120,000 flights per day and 600 global sources

3 January 2019, LONDON – FlightGlobal, incorporating FlightStats, global leader in aviation data and analytics, has today named Delta Air Lines as the world’s most on-time* mainline airline in 2018 in the industry’s longest-running annual On-Time Performance Service (OPS) Awards.

This marks the second year running that Delta has topped the rankings, with 86.09% of its flights on time – an improvement of 0.19 percentage points on 2017. In second place was Qatar Airways (85.88%) and following closely in third was KLM (85.04%).

Qatar Airways is named as the world’s most on-time global airline network**, with 85.88% of its flights on time. KLM (85.59%) and ANA (85.25%) came in second and third place, respectively.

For the first time in the 10-year history of the awards, the Low-Cost Carrier (LCC) category has been jointly won by Azul and Iberia Express. The two LCCs both recorded an average of 86.47% of flights as on time in 2018.

“The passenger experience is fast becoming a key improvement area for airlines and being on time is a critical contributor to that experience,” said Christopher Flook, chief executive of FlightGlobal. “The airlines topping the rankings should be immensely proud of this accolade for enabling the millions of passengers that fly with them each year to arrive at their destination on time.”

The OPS Awards rankings are determined from the analysis of more than 120,000 operated flights per day, along with real-time flight status, departure and arrival data curated from over 600 global sources. The awards have the most stringent and consistent criteria with flight status coverage on at least 90% of scheduled flights.

In addition to announcing the leading global mainline airline and airline network carriers, FlightGlobal has also named the leading carriers for each region, LCC carriers and alliances.

* A flight is considered “on time” if the aircraft arrives at the gate within 14min 59s (less than 15min) of the scheduled arrival time.

** The OPS Awards define an airline network as a system of flights flown by a major airline, but also include the flights that are marketed by the carrier and are operated by its airline partners.

About FlightGlobal

FlightGlobal helps the aviation ecosystem drive superior performance and precision from the largest expanse of data, by setting commercial strategies, managing financial risks, keeping aircraft flying and improving traveller experience. People turn to FlightGlobal for unrivalled data sources, smart analytics and expert market insight to make more informed decisions. Our data and analytics business is the strategic partner to IATA and ARC and our publishing business leads industry-breaking news. Acquisitions of Diio, FlightStats, Innovata and Flight Ascend have advanced FlightGlobal’s portfolio, creating the most complex datasets in the industry. Making sense of your industry starts with making sense of the right data.